The law will empower Israeli individuals, institutions or businesses targeted by boycotts initiated by fellow Israelis to seek compensation in court for damages resulting not only from boycott but even from calls to boycott.
This is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a monkey nut. Even Mort Klein of the Zionist Organisation of America thinks this is folly. "Nobody was more appalled by the boycott of Ariel theatre than me, but to make it illegal? I don't think so," he said. Similar sentiments have been expressed by NGO Monitor and the Anti-Defamation League, neither known for their love of the nihilistic Left.
Israel has a democratic tradition of which it can be proud and which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to boast about before the US Congress in May. In democracies, people have every right to band together and to use buying power to further political or any other objectives.
Legislation that infringes freedom of expression will not defeat boycott initiatives. If the boycott is wrong, let its supporters be found out to be wrong in the free market of ideas. But don't stifle criticism through legislation, only authoritarian regimes resort to that.
The only people benefiting from this folly are those who claim that Israel isn't a democracy after all. Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment